


Just Another Coffee Shop AU

by enaykin, Valka



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Faycen's a barista, First Meetings, Flirting, M/M, Vaeyin's a painfully shy nerd, because everyone needs another coffee shop au, coffee shop AU, dragon age modern au, terrible pickup lines
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-25
Updated: 2017-04-25
Packaged: 2018-10-24 02:09:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10731972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enaykin/pseuds/enaykin, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valka/pseuds/Valka
Summary: Another coffee shop au. Does any more need to be said? First meetings are a weakness of mine. I can't help it.Faycen Malik is written as a companion character.Valka tagged as co-author because she owns Vaeyin Lavellan, the Inquisitor.





	Just Another Coffee Shop AU

Vaeyin had an addiction. 

Green tea, piping hot, with a touch of milk and honey. That was what he ordered every time, but that wasn't his addiction. No, his addiction was the cutie, redheaded barista behind the counter. How you can be addicted to someone when the most you've ever uttered to them was, "hot green tea," "milk," "honey," and "thank you," Vaeyin had no idea. But somehow it was a thing. 

Not that he didn't want to say something more than his regular order, far from it. He was simply painfully shy. And besides, he got his tea on the way to work, no time for flirting. The excuse helped him feel less...sad. 

And that was when it started. With the cups. 

But let’s back up. The redhead hadn’t always been there. He was a relatively new addition to the coffee shop that Vaeyin frequented. But that first day Vaeyin had difficulties even getting his order out. He’d been distracted, his card hadn’t been in the right spot in his wallet and he’d had to fumble around, not entirely paying attention as the line shifted forward. Then he’d looked up and was met with dark caramel skin liberally sprinkled with a heavy coating of freckles and sunset orange eyes topped by a head of flaming red hair pulled up in a messy bun. The words had completely died in his throat and he’d dropped his card on the counter from fumbling fingers that had suddenly stopped working. 

The vision had grinned easily and leaned forward, snatching up the card and glanced at it, presumably to check it before swiping it, but Vaeyin realized later, much later, that it was probably so he spelled his name right on the cup. 

That first day his name had been spelled correctly -no one else had ever managed this- and had a little smiley face next to it. Every day after that, whenever it was the redhead working, the situation only became subsequently worse. Not only could he still not say more than two words to him, but things like little hearts began popping up around his name. Then came the nicknames: Vae, Vae Bae, Rosey, Emerald Eyes, Mr. Perfect, Nerdy McCutey. That last one almost made Vaeyin spit out his mouthful of tea. He always waited to read it until he got to the office, seating himself at his desk, then investigating the cup, almost like uncovering the treasure for the day. He would never admit to the new collection of empty cafe cups he had at home. 

Yeah, okay. He kept every one of them.

This brings us to the newest tactic of the hottie barista: pickup lines. Yes. He’d begun writing really bad pickup lines instead. 

_“Is your father a thief? Because he stole the stars from the skies and put them in your eyes.”_

_“Are you lost? Because heaven's a long way from here.”_

_“Would you like to have breakfast tomorrow? Should I nudge you or call you?”_

_“If you and I were squirrels, could I bust a nut in your hole?”_

_“Hi, my name is "Milk." I'll do your body good.”_

_“Do you know, your hair and my pillow are perfectly colour coordinated.”_

_“You know what I like about you? My arms.”_

When the hell had he had time to write these?! This wasn’t helping his situation at work either. More than one coworker had noticed the heavy blushes he’d have after sitting down and it became a communal thing, Sera and Merrill were the presidents of his “secret admirer” fanclub. Because hell no he wasn’t telling them where to find this guy! Every day they’d scamper to his desk to discover what new blush worthy line this mystery admirer had used. 

But today? Today Vaeyin was in a panic. As he was getting in the car something caught his eye, the writing looked different and he broke his rule. Lifting the cup to his face he discovered it looked different because they weren’t words. Well, not all of it was words. All it said was “Call me!” followed by a phone number.

Vaeyin came very close to dumping his entire cup of tea into his lap. 

What was he going to do? Sera and Merrill were going to demand to see it when he got to the office. Nothing for it, he supposed. Ten minutes later he was walking into the office with a burnt tongue and sans his tea.

All day he thumbed his phone nervously. While in the car he’d added the number on the cup to his contacts, but now he just stared at it, his stomach tying itself in knots. Merrill and Sera had been disappointed at no cup, until they saw the blush on his neck and incessantly wheedled the information from him. Now they made a point to stop by his desk and innocently ask if he’d called or texted it yet. Which of course he hadn’t.

Vaeyin felt like an awful person. This guy was going to give up eventually, and it would be the saddest day of his life because he’d have let such a hottie slip by because he was too shy. A torrid sigh escaped him.

A few days passed and the cups continued, each with “Call me?”, “Text me?”, “Look at me?”. More than once Merrill or Sera found Vaeyin sitting at his desk, lightly banging his forehead against the surface. No one had ever shown this much interest in him before, especially not someone this hot, and he was way too shy to do anything about it. Ignoring it had been easy in the beginning, thinking it harmless. He didn’t know what he was going to do tomorrow. He doubted he’d even be able to look at him. 

The next morning he came into the coffee shop, grateful to see it wasn’t Faycen at the register, instead he was working the machines, making up the drinks. Pretending to be immersed in his phone he hardly glanced up at all except to give the young girl at the register his order and then slink away to wait. 

Finally his order was called and he pushed his glasses back up on his nose before shuffling his way up to the counter to receive his drink. Except it wasn’t sitting on the surface. Instead there was a set of lean hips on the other side and slowly his eyes trailed up, suddenly unable to breathe. 

There stood the hot redhead, now that he was looking at him he could see his nametag said “Faycen,” and his hair was much shinier than normal today, hanging around his face in wavy tendrils. One hand held the bottom of his cup, the other anchored the top, and above that was Faycen’s smiling face. On the outside of the cup was written “Go out with me?” in bold letters.

Vaeyin made a small sound, almost a cross between a squeak and a hiccup, turned on his heel and walked right out, ignoring the hastily yelled “wait!” He almost made it to his car when a gentle hand on his arm pulled him around, bringing him face to face with Faycen again.

“You left your tea,” he said gently. With one hand he pried the phone from Vaeyin’s hand and replaced it with the tea in the other. Then he proceeded to open Vaeyin’s phone and poke around. 

“Wait, what-?” Vaeyin protested, reaching for his phone. What was this guy doing? At that moment Faycen’s pocket chimed. 

“Oooo, you have me in here as ‘redheaded cutie’?” Faycen grinned at him and Vaeyin wanted to sink into the ground and disappear, leaning back against his car with the most miserable expression on his face. “I approve. And NOW I have your number. You can’t escape me.” Faycen grinned at him.

**Author's Note:**

> enaykin.tumblr.com


End file.
